Budget talks to begin next month in Winnetka

Winnetka will start holding a series of public meetings on Feb. 6 to get residents input as the village begins to prepare its 2013 budget, officials said.

"We certainly want resident input, if residents are inclined to show up and ask questions," said Village Manager Robert M. Bahan. "We're doing a deliberate review over the course of several meetings so that the village government is transparent with its use of public money. That's really the intent."

The meetings are scheduled for Feb. 6, Feb. 12, Feb. 13, and Feb. 20. All the meetings will start at 7 p.m. at the Winnetka village hall, 510 Green Bay Road.

Bahan said the public budget meetings are being held in addition to regularly scheduled council meetings, and that a draft budget will be posted to the website and available for review prior to the meeting process.

He also said the study sessions are designed to give the village council a chance to take an in-depth look at the financial document instead of trying to tackle everything in just one or two meetings.

"There's too much there to do in one night," he said. "Generally want we want to do is break it down in manageable pieces that can be reviewed over four meetings. Typically municipalities will have a series of workshops with their boards or councils."

"Our responsibility is to present a budget," he added. "It will be balanced. It will represent core operations and capital like it typically does."

As the village continues to transition to a calendar fiscal year, effective Jan. 1, 2014, a second round of budget activities will be required in August, 2013, said Bahan. The change to a calendar fiscal year allows the council and staff to work on both the budget and property tax levy at the same time, which provides a more direct linkage between the budget and the property tax levy, Bahan said.

Winnetka spent $388,000 late last year on a new software system that will allow it to seamlessly transition to a calendar fiscal year, and for the first time residents will be able to pay bills online. The process of installing the new software is projected to take more than a year because the village will have to convert all the data it now has into the new system, and then run parallel systems to make sure the new system is working properly, officials said.

Bahan declined to discuss the particulars of the proposed 2013 budget, and would not say if it included any kind of tax increase. But he added that that detailed budget information will be released at the end of January or in early February after trustees have had a chance to review it.